22 
PARK AND CEMETERY, 
eight miles of roads through it, and numerous footpaths, but it 
is practically all forest. In reality it belongs to the British gov- 
ernment, but the city has the free use of it under a perpetual 
lease, conditionally upon no buildings being erected upon it, and 
no wharves or traffic allowed on its shores. There are some 
forts under control of the government. The city appropriates 
£2,500 a year for its maintenance, and much pride is taken in it 
by the commissioners in charge. 
* * * 
The year is opening up in great activity with the Park Com- 
missioners of Rochester, N. Y. They recently voted in favor of an 
amendment to the park commission law by which they may be 
empowered to “purchase, clear up and beautify small plots of 
waste ground about the city,” such as the little triangles at the 
angling intersections of streets and other such places. Another 
amendment is to empower the commission to plant trees along 
the thoroughfares of the city and assess costs against property of 
individuals benefited. This amendment is a questionable one, 
as all efforts to forcibly implant ideas of taste and beauty on a 
community must be. The idea of a park commission having en- 
larged powers to plant the streets with trees is a good one, but 
it should be done as a part of the park commission duties and 
the funds secured as part of the park plan. It is hardly prob- 
able that any large expenditures for any new schemes will be 
tolerated, opposition being very marked. 
* * * 
A new method of tree culture appears about to be tried on 
the Harlem River Speedway, New York City, according to a 
criticism in the Scientific American. In the original contract 
for this work, no provision seems to have been made for the 
planting of trees and shrubbery, and to remedy this it was de- 
termined to provide planting spaces ten feet wide on each side 
of the roadway. The constructed roadway not including mater- 
ial adopted for the work it was decided to lay trenches and fill 
them with suitable soil. These trenches, built of concrete and 
masonry, are practically water tight and extend in an unkroken 
line a great distance, and it is difficult to understand how such 
in expensive oversight could have occurred. Evidently the 
engineer who devised the plan does not include a knowledge of 
landscape work in his category, and certainly it would look a 
though the commissioners who allowed the work to proceed had 
overlooked this method of construction. To grow trees and shrub- 
bery in a water tight trench has never succeeded. Such a mis- 
take is harmful to a good cause. 
* * * 
The Brooklyn Eagle after condemning the bas-reliefs of 
Lincoln and Grant on the Memorial Arch, Prospect Park, and 
discussing improvements and excessive cost of some of them, 
touches a correct chord, in the following regarding the proposed 
statue of Washirgton. It says: “With all respect to the Father 
of His Country, we insist that he has statues enough in the 
greater New York, for he has three. Nor do we want any more 
statuary, either of Washington or of any manner of man, unless 
it is good statuary and the bill now before the legislature does 
not specify that this shall be a good statue. It cannot and will 
not be if the making and placing are put in the hands of men 
unacquainted with art and if some hack sculptor is set to work 
on it. We do not want any more Sewards and Garibaldis and 
Bolivars and Cogswells and Conklings. If the work can only be 
staved off until the art commission that has beeen included as 
one of the certainties under the new charter has a chance to act, 
we shall be saved, even though we may have to pay the bill for 
another ridiculous effigy. We are an unconscionable while get- 
ting down to business in this country and in realizing that public 
yvork, like private work, is best done by intelligent and qualified 
persons.” 
CEMETERY NOTES. 
q.44 j. 4,4.44. 444444444444444444444444444444 
A new main entrance is to be erected at Calvary cemetery, 
Milwaukee, Wis. , the stone foundations for which are laid. The 
structure will consist of a main arch spanning the roadway, an 
ornamented and turretted base to the left and sexton’s residence 
and office to the right. The latter portion of the structure will 
be two stories in height, the main portion, modeled somewhat 
on the plan of a castle, with a tower rising from the corner. 
* * * 
A Celtic cross will mark the grave of Harriet Beecher Stowe 
in the burial grounds of the Theological Seminary at Andover, 
Mass. This style of memorial has been selected by the daught- 
ers and son of the deceased. The cross will be of red Scotch 
granite upon a base of Quincy, Mass., granite, and will stand 
twelve feet high. It occupies one of the loveliest sites on the 
ground and it will be visible from some of most beautiful land- 
scape scenery about Andover. 
* * * 
During February the largest number of interments for any 
corresponding period within the history of St. Agnes cemetery, 
Albany, N. Y., was made, as will be observed from the following 
figures taken from the records of the past twelve years: 1886, 
26; 1887, 14; 1888, 31; 1889, 29; 1890, 36; 1891, 31; 1892, 37; 1893, 
31; 1894, 48; 1895, 50; 1896, 63; 1897, 85. The total number of 
interments made in the cemetery up to the present time is 12,- 
442. The thirtieth anniversary of the consecration of the grounds 
will occur upon the 19th of May next. 
* * * 
The annual report of Harmony Grove cemetery, Salem, 
Mass., shows that during the last year there were 175 burials and 
two removals. Mr. George M. Creesy, who was re-elected su- 
perintendent, is also president of the American Association of 
Cemetery Superintendents. One hedge and nine iron fences 
were removed. Considerable improvement was carried out, 
and many new sections laid out and a large greenhouse rebuilt. 
The sale of lots was larger than since 1892. Twenty-two lots 
were endowed and the trustees are urging the lot owners to work 
towards perpetual care. 
* * * 
The City Fathers of New Bedford, Mass., who have under 
their care Oak Grove, Pine Grove and Rural cemeteries, have 
recently awarded the contract for furnishing and planting the 
flowering and foliage plants in the flower beds of these cemeter- 
ies. The number of plants called for was 6,500 which included 
coleus, geraniums, cannas, helianthus, salvias, echeverias, Ric- 
inus, achyranthus and other kinds, and the contract price is $167. 
Last year the work, with less plants called for, was let for $250. 
The highest bid was $340, and it may be inferred from these 
prices that an unwholesome competion exists, from which it is to 
be hoped the cemetery will not suffer. 
* * * 
The ladies’ of Waco, Texas, are a power in cemetery mat- 
ters, and have induced sundry public bodies to back them up in 
their efforts to improve Oakwood Cemetery. Mr. Sam Taylor, 
landscape gardener of the cotton palace exposition, has prepared 
a plan which has been adopted, and which includes the trans- 
forming of a certain piece of ground near the centre of the ceme- 
tery into a small park, in which a fountain will be set and other 
features of park like adornment introduced. The zeal of the la- 
dies’ has been infectious and the lot owners have aroused them- 
selves to join in the good work. A contract for trees has been 
let and improvements will soon be realized. 
* * * 
At the annual meeting of the lot owners of Riverside ceme- 
